The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-08
woMEN's po1NGs.
How a Woman Came TO be Well Posted
in Detective Cases.

IN O9L0CLlV0 cases.
New YORK. May 7.-Anna Katharine
Green, the author of ''The Leavenworth
Case" lives il South Brooklyn in a cosy lit
tie brick house something after the Queen
Anne style, where, as Mrs. Rohlfs, the name
by which she is known outside her novels
she manages to vibrate between writing
desk and nursery in the same CHEEKY, com-
Portable fashion in which most literary
| women who are at the same time mothers of
| families do
How did you, being a woman come to be
so well up in detective cases'' she was asked
the other day.
II don't believe could tell you," was the
reply. at may seem strange confession
to make, coming from woman who has
written more detective stories than any
thing else, but | was never inside a court
room in my life. / never knew detective,
and / never had any personal experiences
that would give me knowledge of matters of
that sort"
How can you write intelligently than
of the tricks of trade that you have not
| learned"
II do not know. 1t has seemed to me in
| stinct always. When first thought of writ
ting it was the unraveling of the clues that
would lead to the detection of a crime that
! seemed the subject that was made for me.
| carried the germ of 1.-The Leavenworth
Case" in my mind from the time l was IA
| years old. When the time came to write it
/ couldn't help doing So"
| "You never make any study of the phases
of actual criminal life, then, for the color Of
| your tales"
mot especially, no. When l have wished
| to describe the robbery of bank, | have
gone to look the entrances and exists over
not to make mistakes that would be absurd
to business men. In writing up long trial,
as in one of my books have studied the
statutes not to be out of the way in my law
| But as for studying criminals from the life
[ have never done that at all. 1t was one of
the promises my husband made me before
we We're married that he would take me
| through the quarters to see something of
| low life in New York but somehow we have
never found time after all. Human ma
ture is much the same in everybody; a
| criminal is man or a woman, and as for
the details of detective business | put my
wits at work and let my scouts do exactly
as under the same circumstances / would do
myself"
''Then dosen't ii happen that your men
do things differently from the officers in real
life.n
sit may be SO, of course; but, after all,
the newspaper incidents, supposed to stand
for actual facts, that | have utilized some
times, are the things that the critics have
bounced upon as being unreal. | don't know
| that when have trusted to human nature
| and common sense have ever been accused
of want of life likeness at all. Any writer
will tell you that it is always the truth and
not the products of your imagination that
people won't believe"
| ''Do you write rapidly"
Sometimes and sometimes not. 1t is the
development of the plot that interests me.
| A love tale or asociety drama or character
sketch without a strong thread of story
couldn't write at all. p"
Mrs. Rohefs is fortunate above most
| literary woman in having a husband who
plays the part of Cerberus, the watch dog,
shielding her from interruption as their
wives are supposed to guard literary men.
| She is young and like most writers who have
made success in one speciality sets more
value on appreciation in another line. Her
detective stories, the first of which, 1.-THE
Leavenworth Case" gave her a standing
and has been followed by number of other
since. are not to her of ANYTHING like the
consequence of a volume of her poems col
lected this spring.
CLOSED IN THE FACE OF WOMEN.
Columbia College is said to shut its doors
pretty obstinately it the faces of women,
| but in one department, at least, it is doing
them great deal of service, after all The
new School of Library Economy opened in
January affords what women need most
and for which they owe whoever offers it
| them most gratitude, q chance at good train
| ing in new and remunerative bread-win-
ming pursuit.
Mr.. Melvil Dewey, the Librarian of
Columbia, has a hobby, and it is that
lbralianship, which is growing into a dis
tinct and recognized profession, will offer in
the near future advantages to educated
women hardly to be excelled in any other
| Goll h.
women like library work, and they are
finding their way into it without help. In
Indiana Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mich
| igan, Mississippi and Tennessee they have
women for their State Librarians, and in
two or three Territories besides. It's not
nervous work, like the school teachers, and
doesn't push timid girl into contact with
the rough side OF the world such as business
woman has to endure.
'Pay9 OF course the pay is small for
the mechanical work Of the library, hand
ing out books FASTING or copying labels and
the like of that, but that is not the real
librarians work at all. For skilled catalogu-
ing, work that takes intelligence and the
best education attainable, the demand is al
ways above the supply. In the library of
the future, the free library, the greatest
missionary force Of the age, there is going
10 be a great opening for womens work, too
| [ don't mean by the ideal free library bic
central book collection in this city or any
city, but smaller ones, so scattered as to
bring the reading room within half a mile
of every workman's home. l expect to see
great numbers of them spring up within a
decade, and to find women in them doing
aggressive educational work to fight the
growing illiteracy of the agen
Mr.. Dewey has lived up to the faith that
IS III him, and for some years back has had
from eight to dozen young women, col
lege girls, most of them, as assistant librari-
ans and ca taloguers in charge of the college
library under his care. 1t was his apprecia-
ton Of their labors as well as his knowledge
| that for young men or women either who
were capable of filing the best places open
to the modern Librarian, there was no class
open where they could learn what they were
required to know that has led to the estab-
lishment of the school of library economy,
where both sexes are admitted as pupils
and where several Vassar graduates have al
ready entered
WOMAN SUFFRAGISTS.
A group of New York woman suffragists;
Lille Devereux Blake, hair growing white
now, clear pale complexion, big blue gray
eyes, an alert though sometimes tired
looking face and popularity in her voice
that in different woman might have been
"a lisp.